THE NE,W YORKER >' . + :: .. :; . .' 1 >:...." c , "t ( 1 y, . ........... t , '1f" r - , t ø" ,. . . . r , 35 :.. . -.$ . ... . ......:. .,. . .ù,,:.,. I' " n. f , \ -0, j -w .. '<.,. if l:", t,J. v .......... it . 'Vf Vf:fO " l ... , -., . 0 Ll.-.) ? . w - ..,., . . . . .'- - .. . "..... ::::. l ,.r-...- · " I 1. 4_. h ............ , : -.... ".. f' ! .' .. . . o _. ..... --....... ::.- ; ...... -.. - --;: . .. _ t . " '.' .* .. " '.l .. , . , . "'*' (y /' - --- ......... - "1t l i ,. ,.., / .,. ; , ,. 1 " () .o<oov... t6'1- ' .. . Y"? <,! e:.... - -{ Z ,. .J \ A . ø'" "We can't abandon that commuter line. How in hell are gozng to get to workP" and often downright idiotic grin that people are now encouraged to assume as their official likenesses are being taken. In the old days, one simpl} glared in honest misery into the camera, and the result-sullen, impatIent, with perhaps a hint of hitherto unsuspected criminal tendencies-was sure to prove hilarious to one's family and friends, if not to one- self. But we can't believe that anyone is heartless enough to laugh at the new look; a man tricked into smiling in the midst of an ordeal is pitiful, not comic. The person who started the trend to- ward the so-called "cheerful" passport photograph is Miss Frances G. Knight, Director of the Passport Office of the State Department, and we readily grant that her intentions were, and are, most . . worth). Miss Knight has long felt that Americans travelling abroad ought, In effect, to put their best face forward, and she has launched a campaign urging passport photographers and new pas - port holders to go in for smiles, smiles, smiles. There's some evidence that her policy, whatever our doubts about it, is paying off in international good will. Immigration officials in foreign coun- tries are said to be commentIng on the fact that the AmerIcan tounst today is a much pleasanter fellow than his predecessor of a few years back, and the reason may be that these officials are seeing more pictures of beaming in- nocents and fewer of apparent homicidal maniacs. (A roguish friend of ours once had himself photographed scowling hor- nbly, wIth a big black cigar clamped in one corner of his mouth Certain of the smaller countries in Europe were afraid to let him in.) About a year ago, Miss Knight and her loyal vassals launched dnother revo- lution; for the first time, they per- mitted passport photographs to be taken in color. Not a matter of International good will in this case but of more accu- rate identification; color photographs come a good deal closer to being true likenesses than black-and-white ones do, and lVliss Knight hopes that all of us will eventually be carrying color pictures in our passports. So far, the idea hasn't caught on very well, partly because most passport photographers aren't equipped to take color photographs, partly because